Thursday, November 16, 2017

The Christmas Miracle

I always go through the tortures or the
damned before I do an interview. I knew today's interview would be
easy because I would be with Ned, who knew the information he wanted Tom
Fay, the lead singer of the Rhythm Kings, to talk about and is a take charge
guy anyway.

The last interview I did I did in the lobby
of Atria because it's the most quiet place around, so I chose that for our
interview today.

Ned with Tom and Ned's friend KC

The point of the interview was to get
information to publicize a fund-raiser Tom and Ned are working on, to raise
money for a Sacramento animal organization. Tom has been doing an
annual fund raiser for about 7 years, now. Each year it's a different
organization and with the glut of animals needing care this year because of
the fires in No. California, this seemed the ideal charity for 2017.

Tom wrote the Santa Rhumba, which I embedded
yesterday. I heard that he wrote it in his sleep, got up one
morning with it all in his head, wrote it down and recorded it. So my
main interest was in finding out how he dream-wrote it (especially since I
dream-wrote my pig entry the other day!)

Tom had lots and lots to say about lots and
lots of musicians I'd never heard of (not being into the local rock scene)
and I hoped he wouldn't be disappointed when I only was able to write a
one-paragraph thing about the concert.

However, as he talked, I realized that what I
had here was a real human interest story and I hoped that my editor would
let me handle it like that (after I wrote to her, she agreed with me)

It starts with the Santa Rhumba and the CD
that came out of it, a compilation of music by a bunch of local bands that
was a fund-raiser for AIDS. Lawsuit was part of that CD and recorded
their "Grassy Knoel." Tom and Ned didn't really know each other,
though both of their bands played at the CD release concert.

Anyway, the song took on a life of its own
and everyone loved it. Ned was still at the radio station at the time
and made sure it got played (along with "Grassy Knoel") during the Christmas
season. Since 1994 it has been played on college radio stations, NPR
affiliates, and local radio stations, as well as being available on iTunes.

Six weeks before Christmas in 2014, Tom had a
stroke. A bad stroke. He nearly died. And he left the
hospital with a feeding tube because he could not swallow and a walker.
The doctors figured this was as good as he would ever get. That year
was the bleakest Christmas he had ever known but he was watching TV and the
host of the show said he had just heard this really cool song by the Rhythm
Kings and it was #12 on the Sirius Radio top 100 countdown of alternative
Christmas hits.

Tom contacted the host and said "that's my
band." The guy was very excited and said "you have to get better and
perform that song on our show next year!" So Tom began to fight.

His wife Cottie (who was the bartender at a
club where Tom had performed) is absolutely adorable and is obviously the
reason why Tom is alive today. They discovered that the fluid he was
being fed was mostly sugar and salt and researched to find an organic liquid
called Liquid Hope and slowly he began to get better.

In May of 2015 he was able to swallow again
and he worked so he was able to throw away his walker and sure enough in
December of 2015, he performed "The Santa Rhumba" on "Good Day."
He contacted Ned's friend KC about playing with him and KC brought Ned, who
sang backup and became kind of Tom's helper. Now Ned and Tom are
working together to put on this year's charity event.

Tom still has post-stroke symptoms, but he
has progressed further than anybody ever thought he could...and it's all
because of "The Santa Rhumba."